


This Infinite Knowledge

by ETNMystic



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:41:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22766440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ETNMystic/pseuds/ETNMystic
Summary: The Society's not what they seem to be, and now things are beginning to overlap.When Mystic awakens in the museum with a girl named Sybille, their once-thought ally turns out to be something more....
Comments: 15
Kudos: 6





	1. What the hell is going on?

**Author's Note:**

> It's a new AU.

_Darkness........_

In the darkness was a glowing pair of red eyes.

Red like the color of a ruby.

"Hello? Is someone there?" I ask.

_Blurry....._

Everything.....so blurry....

It took my eyes time to adjust.

The museum.....

"Hello? Is someone there? What.....the hell is going on?"

A voice to my left.

It was a girl....

I tried to speak, but my mouth wouldn't cooperate. I tugged at my everything to see if there was anything held down. Nothing. I crawled over, stumbling all the while.

"H....he....hey..."

It took me a bit to get my mouth and brain to cooperate. I squinted my eyes to focus her into one single person.

"I'm Mystic."

"Sybille...."

I had a flashback....

Camp Happy Sunshine....

Those mindless campers.

Did she know?

"What the hell's happened?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"I'm just as in the dark as you are."

Then....

_"You're sure they won't try to escape?"_

Wait....that voice...but that sounded like.....

_"I assure you. They will not be leaving my museum until you decide to collect them from me."_

The Collector.....

_"When we do, that's one of our prime targets out of the way."_

"Oh fucking hell," Sybille groaned.  
"Not them."

_"Her creativity will sure help us gain insight into what makes the rest of them tick. The other we'll simply store in the pen."_

_"They are in the room with the table of wine goblets."_

"Wine goblets?" Sybille asked.

We looked at our surroundings. Room? Check. Table? Check. Wine goblets? Check.

"Oh fuck," we both whispered.

The doors burst open.

"And here they are."

My face paled when I saw them in the flesh. Jael, Ryu, and the Collector.


	2. Catwalks and Carrying

"There's nowhere to run, you two," Jael said.  
"You're ours now."

What the fuck?

"Suck a dick, Jael!" I spat.

"Yeah, suck a dick!" Sybille repeated.

Jael continued as if we hadn't said anything.

"We've been protecting you from the Cursed God, Mystic."

"We consider this your debt," Ryu chimed in.

The fuck? Debt? I didn't owe them anything! They protected me because they were supposed to, right?

"The Society sucks," Sybille shouted.  
"And Mystic will be freed, so fuck you all!"

"But you have to find the Tokens of Everlock," Jael said.

"EVERLOCK?" Sybille spattered.

"I'll tell you when we get somewhere safe," I told her.  
"If we get out of this, that is."

"Well...not to be mean," she added.  
"But they want you, not me so."

"Oh no, we want you both," Jael said.  
"Mystic is just......a slightly-higher priority. But why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone?"

They started charging at us, and we ran. We fucking ran. 

"You're just as evil as the Cursed God," Sybille snapped as she slipped from the Collector's grasp.  
"Sorry to have to be the one to tell you but...ya are."

" _We're_ not trying to _marry_ her," Jael argued.

That didn't excuse anything!

"Since when did you want me, anyway? Not like I'm going willingly!"

"Since you joined."

Sybille shook her head.

"I've had enough of this. Let's go, Mystic!"

I tried to run, but Jael grabbed ahold of the back of my dress.

"Sybille! Help!"

"Oh my God! They got Mystic!"

Within two seconds, Ryu pulled out a laser gun and fired.

"OH MY GOD, THEY'RE SHOOTING!"

_Thank you for your commentary, but I could really use your help instead!_

I was digging my feet into the ground at this point. Sybille grabbed my hand, but she was now within Jael and Ryu's reach. The former whirled me around, looking me right in the eyes.

"Come now," she purred.  
"We're not so terrible, right?"

Her eyes began to glow a bright red, I found myself fixed on her. I could barely hear Sybille.

"Wait!" she gasped.  
"Mystic....come...on!"

My common sense kept telling me to look away, but it was so...beautiful...so ruby-red.

"Give her back!" Sybille yelled.

"Give it up, Sybille," Jael sniffed.  
"There's nowhere to run. No one's coming for you."

_"That's where yer wrong!"_

There was a jerk on my torso. I was pulled away from those ruby-red eyes and into emerald-green.

_"'Ello, love."_

It was echoey. I couldn't really hear anything. It was as though my ears were stuffed with cotton. Really dense cotton. I saw a lot of running and felt it. Eventually I came to.

"What the fuck?" I groaned.

"Ye alright, love?"

I looked up and saw her.

My girlfriend, Ivy Flora.

"Yeah, relatively," I nodded, smiling.

"Glad you're alright, somewhat," Sybille breathed a sigh of relief.  
"You're lucky Ivy showed up, because I definitely couldn't have saved you."

"Yeah. I had a feeling she'd come, though."

She gave me a sweet peck on the forehead, and I blushed. But there wasn't much time to feel flattered because the sound of laser guns rang out.

"We gotta 'ide," Ivy said.

"How? This place is a fucking maze!"

"I wish I was more helpful, but I don't even know where we are," Sybille sighed.  
"But once we do get out of here, where can we go that the Society won't follow?"

Ivy replied with "Underground, I guess. I dunno."

"Where are Ro and Joey and the others?" I worried.

"I can only assume they're in 'ell or in the ovver 'ell."

"I've never met the others, you know?" Sybille informed us.  
"Honestly, I'm super new to all this. Your resident newbie. Never met the Cursed God either."

"Don't mean they ain't after ye."

"Obviously not. I'm just saying I'm super useless here, and have no allies of my own."

"Mystic? Sybille? Where are you, dears?"

"Fuck," I whispered.

Jael was close on our tails.

"What do we do now? Should I just go with them to give you guys time to get further ahead?"

_Sybille?!?! Are you nuts?_

"NO!" I exclaimed maybe a little too loudly for my own good.  
"I'm not letting them take you."

"Well thanks for caring, Mystic. But if we get into a situation where it's either me or you...it's gonna be me, okay? Can't let you get taken!"

"Oh fer fuck's sake," Ivy sighed.  
"No one's gettin' taken, okay?"

She grabbed ahold of Sybille and pulled us up into the rafters and what I assumed was a very-high-up catwalk of some kind. Were we in a theatre?

"Should take them a bit te get up 'ere."

"But they will eventually, right?" Sybille pointed out.  
"So what's next?"

Ivy didn't waste any time. Instead she went right to work.

"Next.....we gotta form a game plan. The Society's lookin' fer a lot a the smart an strong ones. Saf, Mat, Nikita, Manny. All a them are eivver wif or targets a the Society."

I heard a happy gasp from Sybille before she tried to shove it down. She couldn't hide it from me, though.

"Oh, uhm- yeah I've heard of them," she said professionally-sounding.  
"From my research and all on everything that's happened...They're definitely four of the very best around."

"But it ain't just them," Ivy told her.  
"The writers, like you, Ines, Lucy, Alice, an Mystic, are all prime target fer them because a your creativity, intelligence, an' abstract finkin', among ovver fings."

"Well, I definitely am creative. Smart on the other hand, eeeeh!"

She waved her hand dismissively.

"Last I checked, Nikita and Matthew are with the Society. So is our plan to try and gather everyone else that the Society wants before they're snatched up?"

"We need te get Matpat an Nikita as well. Undo any brainwashin' they've done te them. But yeah, that's also important."

"Obviously! Question is though, is how are we finding everyone, and who is first up? Look at us though, forming a 'down with the Society' team!"

I smiled a bit at that last remark.

"First up, we need te save the ovver big target a bof the Society an' the Cursed God."

"I'm ready to do whatever when you two are!"

"Ye know 'o we're savin' then?"

"Oh no, I absolutely have no idea! I'm just ready to actually get out of here and rid the world of the Society! Other then the people you just listed, I don't know who we're saving first or anything! Just lead the way!"

Tone was still difficult for me to tell.

"Is that.....sarcasm?" I asked.

"I wish it was. But no, I'm dead serious about all I just said."

Ivy began to explain.

"The ovver target is--"

"There they are. Come to Jaellie!"

I gasped and turned to see that we were cornered on both ends. Jael on the left and Ryu on the right. I felt someone trying to push us away from the former.

"Back off!" she snapped at the agent.  
"Two to three are odds you don't wanna mess with, Jael!"

"Don't aggravate 'er," Ivy hissed.  
"It's gonna make fings worse."

She looked up at Jael before grabbing us both.

"Well, we'd love te stay an chat, Jael, but we got a world to save."

With that she jumped down, landing on her feet, (how she survived is beyond me) and dashed out of the building. 

"I've never gotten grabbed this much in my life, just a fun fact!" Sybille exclaimed.  
"But if it's safe to ask, who's the other target?"

"Not yet," Ivy said.  
"We gotta find them first, an' I fink I know where we need te go."


	3. A Flashback in Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We're running into some familiarity.

It felt like hours before we could get somewhere safe. The scenery blurred past us, so all I could see was green. Then Ivy stopped for a moment. I heard a slight rumbling and then she moved in even more.

"Well," she sighed.  
"We're 'ere."

Once again, my eyes took time to adjust. But when they did, memories came flooding back. The detox chamber, the chase, the talent show, the suicide, the battles, the infection. 

"Holy shit," I gasped as Ivy went to inspect the surroundings.  
"I remember this...."

Nostalgia overtook me. It squeezed at my heart, hoping that it would explode. It noosed itself around my throat, choking it. It pushed tears up to the edges of my eyes, trying to push them to jump off. This sanctuary didn't feel like a sanctuary. Hell, it hardly looked like how I remembered it. Everything was falling apart. Some areas were little more than piles of charcoal. The tower where I once nearly took my life had been slaughtered to rock and rubble. 

"What is this place, Mystic?" Sybille asked as she narrowed her eyes.

I sighed. If only she'd been here before. But no time to mourn that. 

"An old SAE sanctuary I stayed at for a time back when they were protecting me from the Cursed God," I explained.  
"But it didn't look like this. It wasn't falling apart like this. I don't necessarily know what happened. If I had to guess, I'd say there was another ambush."

"An old sanctuary of the Society? My God, this is the coolest shit ever!" she smiled, taking it all in with curiosity.

I smiled sadly. At least someone was enjoying the history behind it.

"Another ambush though? How recent, I wonder.."

I shook my head.

"I'd say not at all. That ambush was likely around the height of the infection, and after me and several others fled....."

"Hmm. That makes sense. Any reason why we're here though? Shouldn't we keep moving?"

I sighed. Her air of confusion pushed at me.

"You probably don't know what I'm talking about with the infection, do you?"

She chuckled bitterly.

"That obvious? Because I definitely don't know anything about it. I've just recently been dragged into this all."

"Yeah," I sighed.  
"There's probably gonna be a lot we run into that'll be memories for us and confusion for you."

But that was when it hit me. How was the bunker here if it was part of a different AU? 

"Wait.....something feels off. This is part of the Possession AU. Does this mean these AUs are overlapped in someway?"

"I love being confused!" Sybille joked, before getting serious again.  
"I feel like the Society overlaps into everything it can get its hands on. If they have artifacts that can do whatever with time and space, surely they can overlap into Possession AU."

"But the thing is they're working _with_ us in the Possession AU. Whereas in this one, they're our main villains. So something isn't adding up here...."

I heard a snort from her.

"I've never known the Society as anything _but_ villains. Anyway, why _are_ we here?"

"The target should be 'ere," Ivy answered returning from her excavation.

Speaking of....

"Can we know the target's name now? Please?" Sybille prodded.

Ivy sighed.

"Guess now's as good a time as any. The target is--"

All of a sudden, I heard another voice, slightly muffled, not too far from where we were standing.

_Hello? Is someone there?_

Ivy's face lit up.

"Them."

Ivy and I rushed over in the direction to see a large trash bin. It radiated nostalgia, as I remembered that time I fell in to escape from those trying to keep me from taking my name off of the talent show sign-up. Ivy opened it, and smiled when she saw them.

"'Ey. Good te see ye."

"Ivy? Oh thank Goodness! Could you give me a hand please?"

We gave them a hand and when their feet scuffed on the ground, we made eye contact. Sybille rushed over as well and skidded to a halt.

"Sybille, 'ere's our second target," Ivy introduced.

The hair, the facial structure, the voice. With his standing in the show, it was no surprise he was the second target.

"ETNMystic," Joey Graceffa exclaimed in a mixture of curiosity and confusion.  
"Interesting to see you again."

"The infamous Joey himself," I heard Sybille mumble slightly under her breath.

"Joey, what the hell were you doing in there?" I asked.

He shook his head.

"I don't know. There's a blank in my memory," he grasped the sides of his head.  
"One minute I was at home, and then I found myself here."

It seemed Sybille had spaced out a bit. She shook her head and blinked.

"That's strange. You don't remember anything between those two memories?" she wondered.

The Savant shook his head.

"Nothing. I think I was knocked out or something. But who are you?"

"Yeah, definitely knocked out. Couldn't have been anything else, seeing as you don't remember feeling drowsy or something before hand...." 

It seemed as though she had gone off on another tangent, which honestly was such a fucking mood.

"Me? I'm just Sybille."

A fellow self-deprecator, huh? Welcome to the club.

"She's not 'just Sybille,'" I defended.  
"She's a target of the society too."

This caught Joey far off-guard, and no surprise.

"The....Society?" 

I nodded, not really wanting to believe it either.

"Against Evil."

His face contorted in confusion, shock, and a bit of anger. His voice thinned and pitched up.

"Are....are you sure?"

I didn't want to face the reality of it, but....they were our villains. Weren't they?

"Joey, they're after me," I explained, grabbing his arms, my voice wavering.  
"And they're after you. The Cursed God is also after us both. We are huge targets."

Our eyes met, and I felt as though I was trying to transfer the trust I didn't have in this fact. Was it fact? It was only, what?, a few hours in and I wasn't sure of what was fact and what was fiction. He shook his head and violently pulled away.

"You can't be talking about the Society Against Evil, though. They helped me."

"Or so you think they helped you," Sybille said, suspiciously.  
"C'mon, think, Joey! Surely you can tell something is off! We were just chased by them, actually. It's clear they aren't friendly, at least not anymore. They even attacked us."

In his face, his eyes, I could see his world shattering. Everything he thought he knew......was a lie?

"No-I......I can't believe it! I won't!"

"Joey--" I began ruefully.

"They've never tried to hurt us!"

"Joey, that's enough--"

"They've done nothing but help us!"

"Joey, pull yourself together!"

I was practically screaming by this point. Sybille, however, was much more calm.

"Listen, Joey, I know it sucks that the people you thought were helping.....are actually against you...but the best thing to do right now is help your friends, especially if the Society is after them!"

I nodded.

"She's right. And we need to face the facts."

"We also need te find Alice," Ivy exclaimed.  
"She's one a the second biggest targets!"

No.....no I didn't hear that correctly, right? Alice was in danger as well?

"A---Alice?!? Her too?"

Ivy nodded regretfully.

"Yeah. Wif 'er connections te ovvers frough dreams, she's prime propaganda spreadin' fer the society."

Sybille looked a little confused.

"Well - let's try and find her then."

There was a bit of a problem, though.

"Where would she be, though? It's difficult to tell in this timeline."

"Out of everyone we need to save," Sybille sighed.  
"Do we know any of their locations?"

"I don't personally."

"Well, if we're still after Manny and Safiya as well - do you know where they are?" she asked Joey.

"I....I don't know," he panicked.  
"I feel like my mind is scattered....like someone's taken my memories and shattered them."

"That definitely sounds like something the Society might do. Which most likely means they now know where your friends are...God we are so screwed! We don't know where anyone even is!"

"If we can piece together what we know," I thought aloud.  
"We might be able to find someone before we all turn into Stanley Webber."

Was anyone going to get that reference? I highly doubted it.

"Hm. Well AUs have overlapped, right? Things and people are moving, but we still might be able to catch someone from where they were last...as long as the Society doesn't snatch them up first."

"It feels like everyone's minds or memories might be broken to some extent. We're not dealing with the cursed god here. These are actually competent villains."

That was when I got an idea. I should've thought of it sooner, but if it was plausible......

"We should check inside the bunker," I suggested.  
"There could be some targets hiding there."

The confusion that radiated off of Sybille would've been enough to break a geiger counter.

"The bunker? Uh, okay..."

We all went over. I opened it up.

"Anyone here?" she asked.

"We're gonna need to check everywhere," I told them.  
"There's quite a few places to check. I suggest we check the med room and the detox lab first."

They all nodded. We were about to begin when suddenly.....

_Hello? Is someone there? Envy? Please tell me that's you!_

There was only one person I could think of who was close to someone who went by that name.

"Shit!" I whispered before taking off. 

_It came from the med bay._

Before I knew it, I was there. And so was she.

"Who...Mystic...that's you, right?"

NervousAliceCurious.


	4. Time to Make Some Trouble

"Who...Mystic...that's you, right?"

It was Alice indeed. And she looked downright confused. Understandably so. We all were pretty much confused to some extent. Actually I think....yeah no, I think even Ivy was a bit confused.

"Alice! What the hell happened?" I pant.

"I...I don't know...I was just...at school, and then, I don't know-"

So pretty much everyone so far had lost memories of the time in between. Then again we'd only found like.....two people, so I was pretty sure it could change....I hope.

"Oh God," Joey groaned.  
"So it's not just me."

"Who is that?" Sybille asked as she ran in.

"That's my friend, Alice."

I turned to Alice.

"Did you get to meet Sybille? She was one of the ones we rescued from Carol's clutches at Camp Happy Sunshine."

"I...think so?"

Sybille was confused.

"Interesting that I seem to be missing some memories too, since I don't remember much of the rescue," she hummed thoughtfully, "But nice to meet you, Alice. I'm here to help, at least with Society business..."

"Thank you..."

Before any of else could say anything else, at that moment, I heard another voice.

"Hello? Is someone there? Manny, is that you, bitch?"

"How--?" I sighed and rushed down to the cafeteria. Lying on the floor, 

"Huh?"

"What???" Alice.

"Oh my God! Is that Nikita?" Sybille asked surprised and extremely pleased.

"I thought you were with the Society!"

The blonde shook her dizzied head.

"Girl, as soon as my head cleared up, I got the fuck out. But.....apparently they've got Bretman. Dunno about Manny. Is he here?"

I wasn't sure how we were gonna tell her....

"Oh my God! Nikita!" Joey exclaimed

He ran over and hugged her.

“Nikita, what’s the last thing you remember?” I asked her.

“Girl, I don’t know. It’s like there’s a gap in my memory. A huge-ass gap.”

"Wait....is...is that the case with everyone?" I asked.   
"I have a huge gap in my brain as well, up until I was rescued."

"So creepy..." Alice gulped.

"Well.....I have two," Nikita admitted.   
"But the first is from a while back.  I don't remember anything about being rescued or whatever. If that helps.  I woke up in the museum. Then I saw these red eyes and then I had another gap in my memory. But when I woke up, you can bet your ass I got the hell away from Jael and Ryu."

"The museum.....that was where Sybille and I woke up!" I gasped.

"Yeah and Jael and Ryu attacked Mystic," Sybille added.

"An' Jael tried te 'ypnotize 'er," Ivy said.

Nikita huffed.

"Oh God....not this plant bitch...."

“Shut up Nikita,” I snapped. 

She rolled her eyes and continued.

“So what do we do to kill them and get the fuck out?”

"That's much more complex, I'm afraid," Ivy sighed.   
"We gotta get the ovver targets first."

"Which is a lot of people..." Sybille added.

"...Are they all in here?" Nikita asked.

"Who's another big target of the Society though?" Joey asked, clearly clueless.

"'O do ye fink, savant?" she snarked.  
"'O are two a the smartest guests ye've 'ad?"

It took him a bit, but finally....

"Matt and....Safiya..."

"Bingo

"Eva did a lot in S1..." Alice peeped.

"Yeah, but Matpat literally got a perfect score on his SATs, so it's not a shock he's a big target," I shrugged.

That was when I realized something.

"Wait....Nikita, were you alone when you woke up either of those times?”

You could hear a pin drop as Nikita tried to recall. 

“No... I remember seeing someone else... but it’s foggy.”

"That's.....weird. I remember waking up with Sybille, and I'm pretty sure she remembers seeing me."

Sybille nodded.

"I definitely remember seeing Mystic when I woke up. Everything else, though, is blurry." 

"I didn't wake up with anyone..." Alice gulped.

Now _that_ was odd.

"Why did everyone else wake up alone?” I wondered.

"This is weird..." 

"Weird is one way of putting it," I agreed.

"Yeah," Nikita nodded.   
"We all have this big-ass gap in our memories, and I have 2."

The confusion on Alice's face was apparent.

"Two?"

Blinking in confusion, Nikita turned to Alice.

"I explained it like 2 seconds ago.

"I got confused..."

The Troublemaker groaned.

"I woke up earlier in that museum and then got got by Jael. Then I woke up again and got the hell out.

"Okay..."

"I wonder why the Museum, though?"

"Did the Collector corrupt them, l ike she did that Medusa lady?"

"I'd say the Collector is in cahoots for sure, but corrupting them? Not exactly."

"They've always been a bit sketch,” Sybille agreed.

"....I guess," Alice shrugged.  
"But why would they work with her?"

"She's got power, why wouldn't they?" I pointed out.

"I don't know, because it doesn't seem like they'd do this just for power..."

"If they want to take down the Cursed God, they would need it right?" Sybille huffed.   
"They'd do anything to get it - for this 'greater good' they claim." 

"Yeah, but...isn't he mostly defeated now? He was barely in S4, except for the box...and that's shut."

"So was Joey," I reminded her.  
"But he's here somehow."

"If he's defeated," Sybille said.  
"Then this situation is even worse - considering the fact they are hoarding multiple, powerful artifacts! If they aren't fighting the Cursed God, they can do whatever they want with them now..."

Fuck, that _did_ sound about right.

"What  _ do _ they want now?" Alice asked exasperated.

"They want some of the best of us," I answered.   
"Oh, and me, for some reason."

“Love,” Ivy scolded.   
“Don’t sell yerself short. Yer amazin’.”

That made me flat-out blush, but I had to get myself back to reality: who knew how much longer we'd be safe here for?"

"Anyway, we don't have time to hang around..."

"You're damn right you don't," a new voice interjected.

We all whirled around, and my heart dropped to my stomach. Standing at the ready, armed, locked, and loaded, were Jael, Ryu, Bretman, and Manny.


	5. We're all fucked....so what else is new?

“Oh bitch…” Nikita gasped.

"Oh bitch" was right.....to say the least. 

"Oh! We were going to rescue those guys!" Sybille pointed to Bretman and Manny excitedly.

"They don't want to be with you any more," Jael said.

The fangirl's face dropped.

"That's mega baloney!"

"How do you know?" I narrowed my eyes at her.

Jael nodded to them. Manny and Bretman, in perfect sync, pulled out laser guns and pointed them at Sybille and Nikita.

"Well, that makes things much worse," Sybille squeaked.

"Don't shoot!" Alice begged.

"There's gotta be a way we can....you know....talk this out...." I panicked.

"Seriously?" Sybille gulped as they advanced on us.

"Guys - c'mon! Do you even know how to use those things?" I asked slowly, taking a step back.  
"Why don't you just give the guns to me?"   


At that moment, Manny turned the gun on Sybille.

“No, give them to me, not---" I sighed.  
"We should really work out the lack of communication between us.”

"Psst!" 

Ivy placed something cold and metallic in my hand. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that she was giving guns to Alice and Sybille, and I also now had a gun of my own. With a nod, the three of us pulled them out.

“Ha!” Sybille laughed with a cocky grin.   
“What are you gonna do now?”

Without hesitation, Bretman shot at Sybille's gun.

"Fuck, that coulda got my hand!" she hissed.

"Hand Mystic, Sybille, and Alice over to us," Ryu threatened.  
"O r we shall take them by force."

"Fat chance," Ivy spat.

The two male beauty gurus kept pulling their triggers with reckless abandon.

"Manny! Bretman! C'mon! Stop this madness! Do you guys want to kill everyone here?" Sybille blinked in disbelief.  
"Or...injure everyone at least..."

_Not the time to ask questions, Sybille._

While Bretman focused his fire on Alice, Manny fired at me.

"Oh fuck!" I gasped as I dodged out of the ways.  
"Are you trying to kill me? I thought you needed me alive!"

“You silly girl,” Jael smirked.   
“Those are long-term paralysis guns.”

They advanced towards us and the Troublemaker was looking especially panicked.

"Manny, Bretman...." Nikita gulped.  
"You don't have to do this."

Glancing over, I saw that Manny flipped the gun setting to something labeled _Final Fire._

That could only mean..... 

"Nikita," he droned.   
"I love you."

_Oh fuck you...._

"You're not gonna shoot me," Nikita shook her head.

"Nikita, I love you."

He aimed the gun right at Nikita's chest.

_ Just....fuck you. _

"You're not gonna shoot me, bitch!"

Out of nowhere the droning Manny got thrown back, and Nikita breathed a sigh of relief.

"What the fuck?" I snapped at Jael.  
"She could've been killed."

"We wouldn't have to kill anyone of you," she said.   
"If you simply complied with us."

I rolled my eyes, and tried to tune her out like a radio. The rest of the gunfire was a blur to me. If I got shot, I didn't feel it. The surreality of our situation.....it was immense. The Society _Against_ Evil......was actually evil.....and now they were after us.....

"Anyone fires anything more..." Jael snapped, yanking me from my thoughts.  
"And she dies."

Looking up, what I saw made my heart flip. Jael had Sybille pinned against her, and a blade to her throat.

"Holy fuck, these really _are_ actually competent villains," I gulped.

"Guys just shoot them in the head! They can't slit my throat as fast as you can shoot them!" Sybille shouted.  
"Also I think you can live from a slit throat, but even if not, I don't care! Just drag them down with me!"

Jael's eagle eyes turned to me.

"Mystic, you  _ owe _ us," she  We've protected you from the Cursed God.  This is your payment.

"I don't owe you shit!" I spat, firing at her feet on impulse.

That was when she smirked, and when my heart dropped once more.  Jael pushed the knife into Sybille's throat, and I cringed. I almost felt the blade digging into my _own_ throat.

_ Jael, please.....if we can't save her, just please make it fast. _

But to my immense relief, Sybille managed to throw her back. That was when I realized: if we stayed any longer, someone was gonna wind up dead.

"Come on!" I shouted as Jael hit the ground with a thud.  
"We have to go!"

I rushed out of the cafeteria with the others following behind.

"Holy  _ shit _ \- holy shit-" Sybille burbled as a line of blood fell from her neck.

Ivy was dragging her and Alice out while Nikita was closing in.

"Time to make like a plane and jet," I told them.

"What about Manny and Bretman?" Alice asked.  
"They're still being controlled!"

I wished we could've done something-anything-to help them out, but right now, none of us were safe. Going back in that cafeteria would guarantee capture or death.

“Right now, there’s not much we can do," I sighed ruefully as I hustled back to the detox lab.  
"If we’re gonna save anyone, we need to get out now. Now come on! I think I know where we need to go next."


End file.
